Joseph McAvinnue

Joseph McAvinnue is a PK–4 elementary school on Mammoth Road in Lowell, MA, serving 447 students as part of the Lowell district. For 2025–2026 it ranks 708th of 899 Massachusetts elementary schools — 21st percentile, 1 star — placing it in the bottom quartile of the state and roughly level with its own district, which ranks 273rd of 351. Free and reduced-lunch figures are suppressed by the state, so the school's poverty profile cannot be characterized from this data.

Math is this school's bright spot and its most unusual feature: math proficiency (32.91%) runs 12.5 points above ELA proficiency (20.38%) and slightly edges the Lowell district average (32.38%), while ELA sits 6.9 points below the district (27.26%). Statewide, ELA proficiency is 40.03% and math 41.11%. Math has climbed from 21.33% to 31.06% to 32.91% over two years; ELA has been flat for four years (20.38%, 22.52%, 25.47%, back to 20.38%), so literacy — not numeracy — is the main drag on the overall rank. English-learner students rank 123rd of 291 (58th percentile, 3 stars), noticeably above the school's overall standing, while special education students rank in the 16th percentile, below the school's already-low mark and volatile year to year.

Spending comparisons are striking. McAvinnue spent $17,704 per student in 2020–2021, near the top among its Lowell peers, yet Charles W Morey, a same-district PK–4 school of similar size, spends $358 less per student and ranks 301st of 899 (67th percentile) with ELA 44.38% and math 58.39%. Across the district line, George H. Englesby Elementary School ($13,015 per student) and Brookside Elementary ($12,882) land 23–28 percentile points higher on roughly 26–27% less spending. Meanwhile, the student–teacher ratio has loosened from 10.9 to 11.5 to 12.9 over two years. For parents, the takeaway is that overall results sit in the bottom quartile and ELA is the reason, but math instruction is genuinely improving and Charles W Morey shows what a similar school in the same district can achieve.